3.23.2009

“The Burnt Asphalt Family” began as a collaboration at Wheaton Arts-The Creative Glass Center of America between a group of all woman fellows, Jessica Jane Julius, Erica Rosenfeld, Maret Sarapu, Sara Gilbert and two other artists Sam Geer, and Skitch Manion. Art making normally has a strong sense of individualism but in glassblowing you normally rely on at least one partner if not more. Collaborating gives us access to greater resources of materials, experience, knowledge, and skill. CGCA created an environment that was conducive to collaborating through supporting the discovery of our new vision with the resources and opportunity to focus on its development. The first performance was “Turkey Dinner”, performed at Wheaton Arts, summer 2007.

The Creative Glass Center of America (CGCA) was founded in 1983 by a group of artists, educators and gallery directors who became sensitive to the particular needs and financial burdens facing glass artists. For the past 25 years, 280 CGCA Fellowships have been awarded to artists from around the world, allowing them the opportunity to focus on the development of their artwork. Today, the CGCA Fellowship Program remains the only one of its kind in the U.S. providing emerging and mid-career artists unrestricted access to the facilities and materials necessary for blown, cast and kiln formed glass.

The CGCA Fellowship Program at WheatonArts is a professional level program providing focused and self-directed artists working in glass with a concentrated period of time to work alongside their peers. Fellows work toward a common goal of advancing their careers through the perfection or refinement of techniques needed to develop a new or expanded body of work. The CGCA program is an environment where we provide the facilities, equipment and a technical orientation; however we do not have technical assistance on hand.

CGCA is housed at Wheaton Arts and Cultural Center in Millville, NJ, an East Coast center dedicated to the continuum of glassmaking in America. The Center is located in an area rich in glassmaking history and is within driving distance to New York, Philadelphia and Washington D.C.

By nature and necessity, traditional glassblowing is a fairly egoless endeavor. It is a collaborative process in which the creators identities are subsumed by the communal sweat and effort required to make a single object. Our concern is not in creating objects or destroying them but in demonstrating various properties and capabilities of glass through teamwork. We do not disregard traditional glassblowing but use it’s techniques to create forms to cook food, for example the hot glass dome that was placed over the turkey in “Turkey Dinner” aided in containing heat around the turkey in order to cook it. We use glass to function as cooking elements, referencing the ritual of eating a meal. However the creation of the work happens in a moment of interaction with our audience.Our inspiration comes from American Society in the 1950s, which was much stricter and very structured. Society Rules were important not to be broken, there were no shades of gray, everything was black and white. Men did the lawn, took out the trash, fixed things, drove the car on family outings, and supported the family and women stayed at home to cook, clean, and take care of the family. In advertisements, TV shows and movies, the housewife is pictured perfectly well groomed as she is vacuuming, dusting, and cooking. The Betty Crocker cookbook and anything BBQ’D was the trend of the food in the 50’s, were the family meal times were an important part of bringing everyone together. It was an era of trying to keep up appearances of the perfect family. In response to that family ideal, we create the appearance of a well-orchestrated performance that investigates gender roles, family characters, and glass making while using the hot shop as our stage. Our goal is to create something temporary and ephemeral in nature that exist only by being recorded, similar to a moment in everyday life. The props and décor of the space add to the theatrical nature of the performance, which expands on the already exciting and mesmerizing nature of glass. Our audience are people both familiar and non-familiar with the medium and through the ritual of cooking, serving, and eating are brought together. This performance is a merge between a glass demo, a play, and an actual family dinner, meal, or event shared with the audience. “The Burnt Asphalt Family” began as a collaboration at The Creative Glass Center of America between a group of all woman fellows, Jessica Jane Julius, Erica Rosenfeld, Maret Sarapu, Sara Gilbert and two other artists Sam Geer, and Skitch Manion. Art making normally has a strong sense of individualism but in glassblowing you normally rely on at least one partner if not more. Collaborating gives us access to greater resources of materials, experience, knowledge, and skill. CGCA created an environment that was conducive to collaborating through supporting the discovery of our new vision with the resources and opportunity to focus on its development. The first performance was “Turkey Dinner”, performed at Wheaton Arts, summer 2007. After Wheaton, the performances served to reunite us and to bring new people into our family. It has been a way for us to stay connected and creative in ways outside of our normal lives as artists while still sharing a love of glass. The second performance was an evolved “Turkey Dinner” which was performed at Urban Glass in Brooklyn NY in November of 2007. Some family members such as Maret, who resides in Estonia, were not able to participate while new members joined our family, such as Emma Salamon, Dena Pengas, Deborah Czersko, Adam Holtzinger, and Leo Tecosky. The third performance was the “Garden BBQ” at Urban in May 2008. This time members again were added while others could not participate. It is an evolving group of artists all interested in exploring new ways of working with glass. We are now planning for the next performance in 2009 at GAS conference in Corning NY, “TV Dinner.”

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About Us

We are an artist collective made up of artists, designers, fabricators, chefs and educators. Our events merge performance, craft, installation, food, and kinetic works. We began in 2007 with 5 people and since have grown to over 30. As a family we share resources and are a creative engine that creates experiences where the audience is a vital part of the work. Through performing craft we hope to redefine the notion of craftsmanship and studio practice of the glass artist. Our beginning performances set out to transform the hot shop and combine a glass demonstration, a play and an actual family dinner. Our next performances focused on redefining the definition of the dinner table and comparing the kitchen to the studio to create a “family space” where a collective labor is performed. Our events have focused on community in order to raise awareness of the various properties and new applications of glass and to allow people to question their own ideals of craft, entertainment, social values, and consumerism.
Jessica Jane Julius, Erica Rosenfeld and Emma Salamon